Search: crossing lines
28 Oct Does Japan’s Pledge to Shoot Down Chinese Drones Violate International Law?
...evidence of the drones’ threat to bolster any attack it makes. On the other hand, is China overreacting to call those Japanese threats an “act of war”? I suppose that is technically true if one accepts that China’s drones are flying over Chinese airspace. Still, it is hard to imagine that downing a drone (where no one is hurt or killed) could have the same significance as downing a manned plane. I think Japan is trying to test China, and draw lines on matters that wouldn’t necessarily escalate into armed...15 Dec Ban Ki-Moon Sworn in as UN Secretary-General
Here is the text of the speech by new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. There are a few good lines from the speech, such as the following: Member States need a dynamic and courageous Secretariat, not one that is passive and risk-averse. The time has come for a new day in relations between the Secretariat and Member States. The dark night of distrust and disrespect has lasted far too long. We can begin by saying what we mean, and meaning what we say. We cannot change everything at once. But we...06 Feb Response to Roger Alford
...between these two pieces of the story is reasonably clear. The “Goldilocks” part of the story explains why England had a good head start on the race to world power. The clever strategy, the five point plan, shows how the British and then the Americans managed to turn this initial head start into a long term lead. But there is another question. It is one thing to say that having an open society – here, a society eager and able to develop along liberal capitalist lines – is the first...02 Apr What do we mean by the Transnationalization of Private Law?
...states the operation of different non-national sources of law operating side by side: fundamental principles, customs, treaties, general principles, and party autonomy. It is clear that in the legal order between states, we acknowledge immanent or informal law formation along these lines even if treaties may often be preferred and the other sources have suffered here also because of 19th Century exalted sovereignty ideas. But treaties are there foremost to clarify, be more specific or remedy as indeed bilateral investment treaties (BITs) for the protection of foreign investment normally do....
08 Aug Libya’s Acceptance of the International Criminal Court’s Jurisdiction: Stakes and Implications
...Libya by the end of 2025. On 15 May 2025, three days after Libya lodged its article 12(3) declaration, he that some lines of inquiry would be completed by the end of the year, with the remaining ones by the end of March 2026. The Prosecutor is independent and retains discretion over whether to initiate investigations. Accordingly, the fact that Libya lodged an article 12(3) declaration with respect to alleged crimes committed until the end of 2027 does not compel the Prosecutor to continue its ongoing investigation or request authorization...30 Jul Judge Wilkinson and the Ambiguity of the “Conduct that . . . Aims to Harm” Criterion
...is a mens rea requirement. Finally, let me close by raising a question about the requirement of a link to a declaration or AUMF. Consider the post I put up last night discussing the complex array of forces currently engaging in armed attacks on Afghan and Allied forces in the Afghan-Pakistan theater. Some of those forces are within the scope of the 9/18/01 AUMF, but arguably some are not (e.g., Lashkar-e-Taiba). Insofar as we intend for a test along the lines of the Wilkinson criteria to operate in connection with...09 Feb Mapping the Evolution of States and Empires
The bloggers at Coming Anarchy have put together an informative series of posts about the shifting borders of states and empires. There’s a time-lapse animation of the expansion and contraction of Rome and Byzantium, a series of maps for each of Ethiopia, Poland, Armenia , Persia, and Russia. Also, there’s a series of comparative maps on state borders in modern Europe. Along similar lines (and in light of current events), I would also recommend Catholicgauze’s post on the ethnic geography of Kosovo. Since a picture is worth a thousand words,...
07 Aug Writing in International Law and Cultural Barriers (Part II)
...issues (see, eg, AsianJIL guidelines). We do have, however, some suggestions on how those involved in teaching, writing and publishing can cooperate towards filling in cultural communication gaps. First, we believe that it is important that authors and publishers understand the problem needs to be addressed through a two-way street approach. It should not be for authors to do all the heavy-lifting of having to adapt to different writing styles, nor should this mean that authors should not be concerned with writing and communicating well. Authors should retain agency over...16 Nov The Sovereigntist Premise of Hathaway and Shapiro’s Outcasting
...The “shared understandings” of statehood are morphing so as to shrink the spaces of sovereign insulation. To paraphrase Wendt, sovereignty is what states make of it, and states’ identity as such has come to comprehend a downsized version. There are lots of ways in which international law is degrading sovereignty. I think it’s possible now to imagine the internal enforcement of international law along the lines of the Modern State Conception — not all advocates of international law “tend to let the conversation drop at this point.” (276). The construction...
17 Mar International Law for a Fragile World: Ecological Risk and the Limits of Consent-Based Governance
...even as planetary systems destabilise materially. This dynamic points to a deeper problem. Consent-based governance assumes that states can meaningfully choose the level of risk they are willing to accept. Climate change demonstrates that ecological risk is not divisible along national lines – one state’s lawful development choices may irreversibly undermine another’s physical survival. When rising sea levels threaten the very existence of some states, the notion that all parties are equal risk-bearers becomes both morally and analytically untenable. In this sense, climate change exposes the limits of sovereignty as...